The Power of Stoic Wisdom: 50 Inspirational Quotes to Live By

"If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, ‘He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.’"

- Epictetus

"It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested."

- Seneca

"You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Freedom isn’t secured by filling up on your heart’s desire but by removing your desire."

- Epictetus

"You suffer more often in imagination than in reality."

- Seneca

"Happiness is a good flow of life."

- Zeno of Citium

"Better to trip with the feet than with the tongue."

- Zeno of Citium

"Man conquers the world by conquering himself."

- Zeno of Citium

"If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labor passes quickly, but the good endures; if you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures."

- Musonius Rufus

"We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we speak."

- Zeno of Citium

"True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not."

- Seneca

"Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one."

- Marcus Aurelius

"We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more in imagination than in reality."

- Seneca

"The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts."

- Marcus Aurelius

"No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don’t have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have."

- Seneca

"In your actions, don’t procrastinate. In your conversations, don’t confuse. In your thoughts, don’t wander. In your soul, don’t be passive or aggressive. In your life, don’t be all about business."

- Marcus Aurelius

"He who fears death will never do anything worthy of a man who is alive."

- Seneca

"The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Let your desires be ruled by reason."

- Cicero

"If it is not right, do not do it, if it is not true, do not say it."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Make peace again with destiny, the destiny that unravels all ties: We are unequal at birth, but are equal in death."

- Seneca

"People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy."

- Seneca

"How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?"

- Epictetus

"Don’t seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will—then your life will flow well."

- Epictetus

"The best revenge is not to be like your enemy."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Choose not to be harmed — and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed — and you haven’t been."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Choose not to be harmed, and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed, and you haven’t been."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it."

- Epictetus

"The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own…"

- Epictetus

"Think of the life you have lived until now as over and, as a dead man, see what’s left as a bonus and live it according to Nature. Love the hand that fate deals you and play it as your own, for what could be more fitting?"

- Marcus Aurelius

"Given that all must die, it is better to die with distinction than to live long."

- Musonius Rufus

"What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him."

- Viktor Frankl

"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."

- Viktor Frankl

"External things are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now."

- Marcus Aurelius

"The goal of life is living in agreement with Nature."

- Zeno of Citium

"You shouldn’t give circumstances the power to rouse anger, for they don’t care at all."

- Marcus Aurelius

"So you must not think a man has lived long because he has white hair and wrinkles: he has not lived long, just existed long."

- Seneca

"Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be One."

- Marcus Aurelius

"You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Let the mind be disciplined to understand and to endure its own lot; let it have the knowledge that there is nothing which fortune does not dare."

- Seneca

"To accept injury without a spirit of savage resentment-to show ourselves merciful toward those who wrong us-being a source of good hope to them-is characteristic of a benevolent and civilized way of life."

- Musonius Rufus

"Control your perceptions. Direct your actions properly. Willingly accept what’s outside your control."

- Ryan Holiday

"It’s time you realized that you have something in you more powerful and miraculous than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet."

- Marcus Aurelius

"If anyone can refute me—show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective—I’ll gladly change. It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth never harmed anyone."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company."

- Seneca

"I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent—no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you."

- Seneca

"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."

- Epictetus

"Curb your desire—don’t set your heart on so many things and you will get what you need."

- Epictetus

"If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, ‘He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would have not mentioned these alone.'"

- Epictetus

"The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them."

- Marcus Aurelius

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment."

- Marcus Aurelius

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."

- Marcus Aurelius

"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live."

- Marcus Aurelius

"We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them."

- Epictetus

"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult."

- Seneca

"Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them."

- Epictetus

"You have power over your mind – not external events. Realize this and you will have strength."

- Marcus Aurelius

"The goal of life is living in agreement with nature."

- Zeno of Citium

"Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Each day provides its own gifts."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Confine yourself to the present."

- Marcus Aurelius

"If a man knows not which port he sails, no wind is favorable."

- Seneca

"The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injustice."

- Marcus Aurelius

"He who fears death will never do anything worth of a man who is alive."

- Seneca

"We suffer more often in imagination than in reality."

- Seneca

"Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself."

- Marcus Aurelius

"That’s why the philosophers warn us not to be satisfied with mere learning, but to add practice and then training. For as time passes we forget what we learned and end up doing the opposite, and hold opinions the opposite of what we should."

- Epictetus

"It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable."

- Seneca

"It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own."

- Marcus Aurelius

"If what you have seems insufficient to you, then though you possess the world, you will yet be miserable."

- Seneca

"A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials."

- Seneca

"Life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future."

- Seneca

"I begin to speak only when I’m certain what I’ll say isn’t better left unsaid."

- Cato

"All things are parts of one single system, which is called nature; the individual life is good when it is in harmony with nature."

- Zeno of Citium

"Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear."

- Marcus Aurelius

"This is our big mistake: to think we look forward to death. Most of death is already gone. Whatever time has passed is owned by death."

- Seneca

"Nothing is more hostile to a firm grasp on knowledge than self-deception."

- Zeno of Citium

"He with the most who is content with the least."

- Diogenes

"We should not, like sheep, follow the herd of creatures in front of us, making our way where others go, not where we ought to go."

- Seneca

"Well-being is realized by small steps, but is truly no small thing."

- Zeno of Citium

"The best way to avenge yourself is to not be like that."

- Marcus Aurelius

"How does it help…to make troubles heavier by bemoaning them?"

- Seneca

"He needs little who desires but little."

- Cleanthes

"He has his wish, whose wish can be to have what is enough."

- Cleanthes

"The best answer to anger is silence."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Living virtuously is equal to living in accordance with one's experience of the actual course of nature."

- Chrysippus

"Fate is the endless chain of causation, whereby things are; the reason or formula by which the world goes on."

- Zeno of Citium

"The Fates lead the willing, but drag the unwilling."

- Cleanthes

"Thought is the fountain of speech."

- Chrysippus

"Extravagance is its own destroyer."

- Zeno of Citium

"Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body."

- Seneca

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end."

- Seneca

"It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness."

- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

"No man is crushed by misfortune unless he has first been deceived by prosperity."

"You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire."

"No loss should be more regrettable to us than losing our time, for it’s irretrievable."

"A bad feeling is a commotion of the mind repugnant to reason, and against nature."

"A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer."

"Give yourself a gift: the present moment."

"He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary."

"Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it."